Week 30 - 5 December

Well, the open water season is well and truly under way now. I am doing two events per week and sometimes an extra one on the weekends and have been pleasantly surprised by the temperature of the water - nowhere near as cold as I was anticipating! Pool work is still going well, and I am clocking up around 40km a week.

However, Al and I have decided we needed to bite the bullet and get serious! So, on December 10th we arranged to do a five hour swim, from Maraetai to Waiheke, up the coast a bit and back again. This took a little more organisation than usual as we need a boat to accompany us - thank you very much Mike Tate! - and snacks and drinks to keep up our energy and hydration levels. We were also lucky enough to have Marty Blandford come along and keep us company in the water - albeit in a wetsuit and with fins! Thank you too, Marty, it was great to have you there and we hope your cramp is finally easing up!

So, the swim began at 7am in much rougher conditions than we were anticipating - white caps on the waves, cloudy skies and a fair wind - probably not a bad simulation of Cook Strait. Reaching Waiheke took just over an hour and a half and we stopped briefly for a cup of tea (what a pom). Then we swam down the coast for an hour getting pounded by the waves, before heading back home in conditions ever rougher. We ate or drank every half an hour - I can definitely recommend the honey sandwiches, courtesy of Happy Valley Honey, a real energy boost - plus jellybeans to get rid of the salt taste in our mouths and isotonic drinks. The last couple of hours were really hard work and it was good to get back in. However, 16km in four and a half hours is pretty much on track for how we want to swim the Strait, and we'll be going for a 6 hour swim next time we do a long one

Then it was off home for a well earned rest and a bath to remove the lanolin I had smeared on - not an easy job, or a single person job! And, of course, another nice cup of tea. There have been no after effects and it's been straight back into training this week, so all good and a real confidence boost!